Mailing-List: contact ooo-dev-help@incubator.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: 
 <CAPFNckiu6qsyeK1H2NjJS6c4QpGtZp0JWwLnJ4Fn1O1sV=hOog@mail.gmail.com>
References: 
 <CAPFNckiu6qsyeK1H2NjJS6c4QpGtZp0JWwLnJ4Fn1O1sV=hOog@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 08:59:53 -0400
Message-ID: 
 <CAP-ksoh-JGWHdy+frGFn0+CN0iKw4DVTsFT1Y09NsdLh5Xq3RA@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Who else can do it? (was: Fwd: What is needed for Support Forums
 to be fully integrated into the Apache OpenOffice.org project)
From: Rob Weir <robweir@apache.org>
To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 5:45 AM, Christian Grobmeier <grobmeier@gmail.com> wrote:
> So, what now?
>
> I consider the ooo-forums a very important part of this project. Who
> else is able to help, when Terry is gone?
>

The important thing is that users have avenues of support.  We were
never talking about there being only one way of doing this.  Even
within the podling we were talking about support via forums as well as
via mailing list.  And we acknowledged that there was already another,
independent, free support forum for these apps:
http://www.oooforum.org/ as well as commercial support offerings,
which there appears to be by at least SUSE and IBM, and perhaps RedHat
and others in the future.

So there are no shortages of ways in which users can get support for this code.

For this AOOo project, we have several options:

1) Continue talking to the support forum volunteers, and discuss
further how they work, and how Apache projects work, and how they can
best work together.  But let's not pretend that this is a do-or-die
situation.  Let's not force a square peg into a round hole.  If they
are not a good fit for Apache, then only misery will come to them if
we try to force them into an Apache mold.

2) We could open discussions with the operators of www.oooforum.org to
see if they would have any interest in joining AOOo, along with their
volunteers.

3) We could set up our own phpBB support forum and attract volunteers.
 I suspect that not every single one of the 75 existing forum
volunteers agrees 100% with Terry.  There may be a difference of
opinion and some of them might be more receptive to working within
Apache.

4) We do support entirely via ooo-users lists (in various languages).
Support forums (at least one, maybe two) would operate independently,
outside of Apache.

5) As was suggested elsewhere on the list, have the support forums
operate in their own Incubator Podling.

There there are several options,some of them quite reasonable.

Regards,

-Rob